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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Our dining room is really nice, but there's not much to it. I love the red color that Brad had painted it when he worked on the house before we met. The walls are plaster, so he said he had to paint it five times to get the color right. He did a good job, didn't he?

We eat supper at our kitchen table unless we have company. I have to confess that if we had not just had company, this table would be full of papers. It serves as our office and pre-filing dumping ground for mail. What in the world does one do with mail? I could do without it myself, unless it's something fun!

The view from the den and through to the kitchen. Brad's mom gave me these framed art pieces for my birthday.

The china cabinet. Brad already had this piece in here when we got married. I really love it.

My china is Waterford Trapani. I have Waterford Maeve crystal, but I only have a few pieces.

That's about it! It's really small, and it's one of the rooms I've really done nothing to since we got married over three years ago. I would like to get a new chandelier that has better light (this one is really yellow) and do some different things on the walls next to the large door, but those things on the bottom of a long "this old house" improvement list!

**Originally posted 5/21/09. We haven't changed a thing here, but I added my wish list for the room for this year!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I came home from Atlanta and immediately noticed something new in the neighbor’s back yard. That looks like a shirt or something. One of those kids must have dropped it passing through.

So Blair and I swing. And I keep glancing. Wondering. Then I saw the feathers. Is that one of my chickens? I think that’s one of my chickens. In fact, that’s one of my chickens, and it’s a Wyandotte. Darn. Something got one of my chickens. How many were there just minute ago when I checked on them? I can’t walk over there and look. Instead, I run to the coop. On the way to the coop, more feathers. What is going on here? Those look like Barred Rock feathers. I know I saw some Barred Rocks a few minutes ago.

I call them. Four came. The Barred Rocks didn’t appear to have lost any feathers. Three missing. All Wyandottes. I know I saw at least one Wyandotte this afternoon. I look in the chicken house. Two poor traumatized Wyandottes are huddled inside. I rubbed one on her back.

Then I noticed it. The other one looked funny. Maybe it’s a shadow.... Nope, something’s weird. Is she missing some feathers? She comes out of the house, and the poor chicken is completely bare on her behind, but there’s not a scratch on her. So we lost Minnie the small Wyandotte :(, but the rest along survived – even half-toe Wyandotte - minus her panties! She’s used two of her lives now. How many lives do chickens have? I guess when it comes to dogs, not many. Poor Minnie.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Seriously, Blair has way more imagination than I could ever hope to have. Tonight Brad, Blair, my friend Nicole, and I were sitting on the den floor talking and playing with Blair, who all of a sudden starts rolling around on the floor -- wollowing all around on her back smiling. Brad asked her if she was acting like Gus. She thinks his rolling is hysterical and laughs every time – like she did in the video in this post.

She immediately got in a crawling position, and she pretended to EAT off of the floor! Then she took off running to the back of the house.

She came back about 20 seconds later with a BALL IN HER MOUTH. Seriously. And once again she rolled all on the floor with the ball in her mouth. One of the funniest things she’s done yet. I can’t get over the stuff she picks up on! And we haven’t played with that ball in ages… how did she know where to get that?!

I raced into the kitchen to grab a camera. (She usually wears clothes. I had taken her dress she wore to Atlanat off because Nicole had brought her her very favorite treat – a Kit Kat – and I would rather do preventative stain removal! It was bath time anyway.) Brad and I just kept looking at each other like we always do. She’s just amazing to us.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

People ask me quite often if I live on “the farm.” We actually live in town, and Brad’s parents live next to the shop, but most farmers (row croppers) I know nowadays farm land that is fairly spread out. It’s hard to find a whole bunch of farmland all together, especially when farmers grow 1000 or more acres of at least one crop. This week Brad is picking the largest single field he’s ever picked, and it’s just over 300 acres.

Since everything’s so spread out, “Where are y’all?” is a question I seem to ask a lot. Sometimes Blair and I have to track Brad down if we know he’s not coming home early. Like this week. He’s picking cotton, and I took supper to the field four nights in a row.

If I don’t know where they are, I just call and ask. An answer of one or two words usually does the trick, and I know right where to go. Right now they are really far away from the house, and I will be so glad when they get back in town!

So how does Brad tell me where he is? Well, every single field has a name. It’s sort of funny how farmers name places they farm. It actually does make sense though. It’s a lot faster once everyone knows the name and a field can be referred to by it’s name instead of a long explanation with directions. Sometimes the name might have to do with the highway it’s on or township it’s in. Occasionally it’s “next to or across from so-and-so’s house.” And then there are just other names that came up for one reason or another.

Some of our fields names? The new farm, the big pond, across from the power plant, rabbit patch, windmill field, fire tower, the shop (obviously the field at the shop), the forks, and there are tons of others named after roads, people we rent from, or people that live next to the field.

You may not find this the least bit interesting, but I’ll tell you that it sure is helpful to me! I finally learned them all and can actually make my way around quite well. That’s a far cry from the night several years ago when I was headed to a field for the first time and ended up in the next county nowhere near where I was supposed to be! But now, Brad tells me he’s at the New Farm, and I’m there!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

So last week we went to the Georgia game. If you read here you know that I’m a Yellow Jacket. My dad went there; my brothers are there right now. I’ve been a Georgia Tech fan for my whole life, and I’ve heard it all from just about every single Georgia fan I have ever known.

Even though I’m not a UGA fan, I love college football and a good game, and I thought this UGA vs. Arkansas game would be a good one. Plus, I got to go with Brad and his dad, and that’s always fun!

We stopped for lunch on the way up there. Traffic was pretty bad, so we were a tad late. It was a beautiful day – we were thankful our seats are in the shade – and the stadium was pretty full. There was a lot of red! This was my contribution.

Red toes. I just can’t handle any more red than that on gameday.

I did, however, buy Blair a red and white striped UGA dress. It’s cute, but I mainly bought it so that I could get her a Tech one. Just kidding. But I’ll probably still get her a Tech one. After all, she already has a bow to match!

UGA lost in a heartbreaking finish, but Georgia Tech won! I kept swiping Brad’s phone to keep up with the score.

My next game in Athens? Hopefully UGA vs Georgia Tech! I told Brad’s dad that I would be wearing yellow, so he said he would wear red pants and shoes!

On the way home, we stopped in Juliette to take a peek at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Juliette was completely shut down, but we did get to see the neat little street where everything is.

The Whistlestop Cafe

The Sherriff’s office. Ha. It was about as big as a child’s playhouse!

Then we found a little campground that also had cabins on the river. It was neat. Brad and I skipped some rocks, which is always fun.

Our last little treat was stopping at my parents’ house for dove, grits and biscuits for supper. Made my day. Well, that and the Yellow Jacket WIN! But we lost today against NC State – oh well.

Friday, September 24, 2010

I threw this post together at the last minute, and I’m not gonna lie; I definitely had to do some cleaning for the pictures. And some of the stuff? It’s on the other side of the bed on the floor. Nursing school, a toddler, and a husband who is picking cotton at all hours of the night is not very conducive to cleaning!

My bedroom hasn't changed much since the last time I posted about it, but I did purchase a new duvet cover. It's Pottery Barn, but I bought it on Ebay. I love it. It's super soft and just the right weight. Plus it looks great with everything I already had in our bedroom.

This is what the bed looked like before. Brad didn't like the brown duvet comforter. He said it was too heavy. It's got great reviews at Target, and I loved it, but I like the new one too. I'll be happy to sell this one if anyone's interested. It was used for just over a year and is in great condition!

Here's the new look.

On the back wall is the framed drawing that was done by a local artist for our rehearsal dinner invitation. The velum paper over the cotton boll turned out really pretty for the invite, and the framed print is beautiful as well.

At the end of the bed is a dresser. I really want to put a big picture of Blair on the wall next to the television, but I can’t decide which one to do!

The entrance wall to the room has another dresser and a small closet for my clothes. Brad’s are in the guest room!

I got these two small oil paintings in Spain when I was there doing my masters coursework. I bought them in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid and surely paid too much for them, but to me they are worth what I paid, because they mean so much to me. I have another one that hangs in our hallway that I got in 1998 on my very first foreign study.

I got this little semi-circular table at Hobby Lobby. I think it's great for the room, and Hobby Lobby has great prices on furniture like this. We didn't have space for two full-sized night stands, so this is perfect. I liked it so much, I bought a table from the same collection for Blair's room.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Unfortunately, the surgery did not include any sort of lifting, augmenting, or reducing – or lifting. Darn. Maybe next time.

This time I had to have an irregular (dysplastic) mole removed. I had had the mole biopsied, and it came back atypical so the dermatologist wanted to remove the surrounding tissue. He felt that since the mole was in the center of my chest a few inches below my collar bones that it would be best if a plastic surgeon did the job. So he did.

I would say that he was awesome because he was. He was super-nice and talked about stuff with me during the whole procedure. However, I haven’t seen what my 1 1/2 inch incision looks like yet, so the jury is still out. I’m supposed to leave the tape on as long as it will stay, so I guess we’ll see!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Last week we had Farmers’ Appreciation Day down in these parts. We celebrated with some booths in town, an antique tractor display, a parade, and some live music. It was a pretty good time.

The streets were blocked off with peanut wagons. Between the sun, the heat, and the gnats, I had a tough time getting a good picture of Blair! Shriners The gin’s float Tractor with a peanut digger Brad’s sister Kim and her boyfriend pulled a float.

Blair got to enjoy the day downtown for a bit. We watched the parade and walked around. It was super hot, and we were thankful we had a place to get some a/c (and watch the Tech game!).

Cooling off in the dentist office where our booth was. Examining her smarties we got at the parade.

The AirEvac helicopter landed in the church parking lot. We have a station near us, and I believe there are 3 others in south Georgia. The helicopter was really neat. Blair wouldn’t get in by herself, but once we got in, she didn’t want to get out!

Helicopter in the church parking lot that was blocked off with peanut wagons.

Then we went over to sit in the shade, and Blair found a new friend.

She carried a purse around with two pacis: “da” and “ada” (other da)

I’ll get ‘er mama.Maybe I’ll try it this way. Look, mama! Kitty’s not too thrilled.And she drops her. Now I got her!

I am a member of our county’s Farm Bureau Women’s Committee, and we set up a little booth and sold homemade cakes by the slice. We sponsor agricultural programs in the school, so we were raising money to be able to do some fun activities with the kids. Last year we promoted vegetables, and one class made veggie pizzas. We also participated in Ag Day by bringing some animals to the school for the kids to see.

This year the commodity we’re promoting for the school year is peanuts, so we will be working on some things to do with the kids to teach them about our state crop! Our fundraiser was a success, so we are excited about having an opportunity to do some fun things with the kids.

Farmers are digging peanuts right now. I love when I’m driving down the highway and all of a sudden smell peanuts that are drying in the sun. It happens quite often this time a year.

A few peanut facts from Georgia Farm Bureau…

Georgia produces all most half of all of our country’s peanuts and over half of the peanuts used for peanut butter. We also export the most peanuts. (www.statesymbolsusa.org)

Peanuts are cholesterol free and low in saturated fat. They are 26% protein and contain vitamins and minerals.

The peanut is a legume instead of a nut.

Peanut butter is the leading us of peanuts in the USA; it is consumed by 89% of households.

Americans eat enough peanut butter in a year to make more than 10 billion PB&J sandwiches.

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Child of God, wife of a farmer, mom to a miracle, RN; picture taker, animal lover, Spanish speaker, world traveler, former high school teacher. I love food, knitting, blogging, and living in a small town. I write about a little of all of the above!

Brad is my husband of 6 years and the reason I live across the branch. From a very young age he knew he'd be a farmer. God gave him the love and the talent -- and he's the best looking and the best dressed farmer I know! He's funny, creative, and he's the most wonderful husband and father. He's the one that can make Blair light up like no other.

Blair is four! We are so blessed to have her. She was born very sick, but God gave her strength and brought her through it. She has hearing loss called Auditory Neuropathy and wears hearing aids. She also has chronic lung disease, but you wouldn't know by seeing her! She is the busiest, funniest little thing who keeps us laughing and on our toes. I thank God for her every day.

Leighton is the happy roly poly who joined our family this summer. He has been a joy and is as sweet as his big sister! He's such a blessing, and we're so thankful for him!